Hull Police honor slain MIT officer Sean Collier

Hull Police Chief Richard Billings cited statistics showing that a police officer is killed in the line of duty every 57 hours. "This is no statistic to us," he said. "This is personal.”

By Natalie OrnellFor The Patriot Ledger

A flagpole in Hull with a plaque at its base was dedicated to Sean Collier outside of the Hull police station.

Collier, who served as a summer officer in Hull from 2008 through 2010, was shot to death by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects in the line of duty on April 18, 2013, on the the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus.

Collier’s mother, Kelley Rogers, present at the ceremony Saturday morning, was honored with a separate encased flag which had flown over the Capitol in Washington, D.C and a Shadow Box, which contained Collier’s name tag, his badge and number, along with a statement in his memory.

Flags always held a particularly special meaning for her son, said Rogers, a nurse.

“Sean fell in love with flags when he was 3 or 4 years old. Whenever we saw a flag on the street, we had to salute it.” She said when he was 5 or 6 and it was raining outside he asked her to take down the flag outside of her home. She folded it for him in his room before he covered himself with it. That room would later be filled with medals.

Beginning in the fall of last year, two Hull High School students, John Marcinkewich and Julia Heavern, raised money for the flagpole with the help of various contractors in Collier’s memory by selling Boston Strong themed bracelets.

“My sister sold bracelets for a janitor who died. I saw everything on the news and thought it would be a good idea. We raised $1,000 which went to the plaque and flagpole. We wanted to put something here in his name because he contributed here, too, ” said Heavern, 18, a senior at Hull high school who is heading to Providence College this fall.

Hull Police Chief Richard Billings addressed the crowd in uniform: “A police officer is killed in the line of duty every 57 hours according to statistics. Well this is no statistic to us, this is personal.”

Billings added: “I recall at personnel inspection prior to Sean’s first assignment how sharp his uniform appeared, how his brass shined along with his name tag….After the heartbreaking loss of Sean, our community identified with him in his remembrance. I received numerous calls from merchants along his foot beat and citizens alike about they recalled the baby faced officer and how approachable he was and his enthusiasm that said 'how can I help?'”

Around 70 officers in uniform joined friends and family of the Colliers for the ceremony.